Process of manufacturing lactose



' method of extracting Patented May 3, 1927.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SHERMAN c. nnamrn, or mun, m anus-n. r. more, or nonzero,

2m 0] IAIUI'ACTURING LACTOSE.

No Drawing.

This invention relates to a process of manufacturing lactose and especially to that step or series of steps by which the \fat and albumen are precipitated and re-, moved.

A commonand f uently practiced mi sugar or lactose from whey, briefly stated, consists in 1 Precipitatmg the casein b heatin them from 90 to 96 Fahrenheit, and t en adding a sufliciently large quantity of diluted hydrochloric acid to brm about a clear se aration of the casein roin the whey; (2 removing the casein by filtration or otherwise; 3) treating the whey with an alkali, usua y in the form of milk of lime, to neutralize the excess acid in the whey; (4) heating the whey usually to the boilin oint .to coagulate and precipitate the a umenand fat contents; (5) removing the coagulum by filtration or otherwise; (6) concentrating the clarified whey by evaporating in a vacuum pan until it becomes syrup like in consistency; (7) transferring the whey to a crystallizlng vat, where it is allowed to remain undisturbed until it has cooled and crystallization has taken place; (8) separating the mother liquor and the crystals, and (9) washing the crystals to remove adhering impurities.

The above described steps only roduce a product known as crude sugar, an as this product is not marketable, the following refining steps will also have to be considered but it should be understood that these steps do not form any part of the presentapplication.

(10) The washed sugar is transferred to a vat where it is re-dissolved in water; (11) treated with a mixture of boneblack and sulphurous acid and re-heated to the boiling point; (12) when this operation is completed, the syrup is pumped under pressure through a filter and collected in a receiving vat; (13) it is again pumped through a charcoal filter to insure clarification; (14) and is then delivered to a vacuum pan for re-concentration; (15) when the desired consistency is obtained, it is transferred to the crystallizing vat; (16) After crystallization, the crystals and the mother liquor are again separated; (17) and the crystals are again subjected to a thorough washing, which results in the final product which is pure white sugar.

Application ma December 1h, 1022. Serial Io. scam.

The above described process is wasteful and objectionable from a number of points of view, that is the thermal-efficiency of the process is very low-and the extraction and recovery of the sugar fromthe who seldom exceeds 50% of the total content. e main objections may be enumerated as follows.-

First, the whey is received containing an unknownquantity of acid; second, a method of determining the exact amount of acid present before and after neutralization is not employed; third, in order to effect a complete prec1pitation of the albumen, it is enerally considered necessary that the w ey should at all times show an acid reaction; fourth, acid in the presence of heat has a tendency to invert some of the sugar present in the whey. Takin this fact into consideration it will be rea 'ly seen that the practice of retaining an acid whatever in the whey is objectionab e. Also this inversion increases in direct proportion to the temperature employed, and the amount of acid present. Therefore conditions are very favorable for inversion and inversely favorable to maximum recovery of the sugar present in the whey. Fifth, the sugar in the whey is sensitive to heat and when boiling temperatures are employed, the sugar has a tendency to caramelizet That this caramelization does take place to a very marked degree is evidenced by the color of the crude sugar recovered from the whey, which has been subjected to such high temperatures. Caramelization of sugar solutions takes place in direct proportion to the temperature to which it is subjected. The practice of employing such temperatures must, therefore, necessarily be considered a very serious objection. Sixth, live steam is introduced into the whe for the purpose of heating the whey. his is also objectionable as the condensation of the steam tends to greatly increase the bulk of the whey or liquid to be evaporated. Seventh, it has already been stated that the whey is subjected to heat for the purpose of obtaining a separation of the albumen from thewhey. It is desirable to produce the whey absolutely free from albumen. However, the above described process of coagulating the albumen cannot be considered an ideal method. It is admitted that coagulation of all of the albumen does undoubte 1y take place, yet the coagulum or precipitate is present in such a finely zation vat to cool and crystallize. T e precipitate is naturally also carried with the syrup into the crystallizing vat, where the fine particles of precipitate lend themselves as nuclei for the sugar crystals to form upon and around, and when the crystallization has been completed these fine particles of precipitate are firmly enclosed in the hard Eighth, the crude sugar crystals formed are separated from the mother liquor and are t en sub ccted to a washing action. Such washing 1S extravagant in that the losses of su ar n the water sugar crystals;

are comparatively great an the sugar thus lost is not recoverable. Ninth, the sugar crystals thus formed and washed must useessarily be subjected to a purifying actlon to remove the enclosed precipitate, and also to remove color produced by caramelization. It therefore necessary, in order to free the crystals of these impurities, to re-melt the c stals. To accomplish this the sugar crystas are re-dissolved in four to five times their weight of water. After the sugar has been re-dlssolved, a mixture of sulphurous acid and bone-black'is added; these ingredients being added merely for the purpose of decolorization -of the syrup. The mixture is then heated and pumped through the filter press to remove the precipitate or solids and is again delivered to the vacuum pan to be ire-evaporated. Tenth, after reeva oration and crystallization, separation of t e crystals and mother liquor must again be resorted to and the crystals are then subjected to a final and thorough washin action before a refined product is obtalned, thus causing another loss in sugar which reduces the final recovery to approximately 50%.

The process or method forming the subject matter of the present ap lication elimmates all of the objections a ove specified. It increases the total recovery of sugar to approximately 85% and materially decreases the cost of manufacture, due to the greater thermal-efficiency obtained, and lessening of the time and steps employed. This is accomplished, first. by determining the acid present in the whey before neutralization; secondly, neutralizing all of the acid present in the whey by the addition of an alkali, and by adding an excess thereof; third, em-

ploying a lower temperature during the coagulatlng process; fourth, employing a method of coa lating the albumen that will eifect an absolute separation and, at the same time, form a recipitate that may be readily collected and retained in the filter process; fifth, heating the whey during the coagulating step without introducing the steam directly into the whey, thereby eliminating an increase in volume of the whey or liquid to be evaporated; and, sixth, producin a milk sugar equal in quality to the materlal hereinbefore described as refined by means of a single crystallization, thereby eliminating two or more washings of the sugar crystals and re-melting and re-evaporation thereof.

The casein making or precipitating step used in conjunction with this process of whey purification is described in a publication known as, The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. #12, No. 12, December 6, 1920, under the title Studies on technical casein, grain curd ,casein, by W. Mansfield Clark, H. F. Zollen, A. O. Dohlberg and A. C. Weinman, Research Division Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture. The process there described is the one which we preferably employ, but any standard process may be employed.

The whey from which the casein has been separated is received in the sugar factory at a temperature of about 34 centi ade and is immediately treated with a sutficient amount of milk of lime prepared by slaking calcium oxide with water to a mixture of 20 Brix, to neutralize the free acids present and provide an excess of about 1% of calcium oxide which combines with the solids present in the whey, to-Wit, albumen and fats. For 1000 kilogrammes whey this would require an amount of milk of lime equivalent to from 20 to 30 kilogrammes of calcium oxide. The mixture of whey and milk of lime is placed in a tank provided with heating coils and a perforated coil in the bottom tor the addition of carbon dioxide. Steam is admitted into the heating coils at a' pressure of not to exceed 5 lbs., gauge pressure, and carbon dioxide is injected through the perforated pipe. The carbon dioxide is admitted until the clear liquid separated from the precipitate has a pH value of 8.4 or is neutral to phenolphthalein indicator. The delivery of steam to the coils and carbon dioxide to the liquid should be so coordinated that the whey gradually increases in temperature to coagulate and precipitate the albumen content and the supply of carbondioxide is gradually decreased, as the temperature of the whey increases. The final temperatureof the liquid should not exceed 80, centigrade. From the carbonating tank the material is pumped to a filter press where a clear substantially albumen free "press there is added a suflicient amount of a decolorizing carbon, such as Norit or Darco, to produce complete declorization. In practice 1% Norit on the weight of clarified whey has proved suflicient to roduce the desired decolorization efiect.

however, is dependent on the amount 0 color originally present in the whey and on its preliminary treatment. The carbon is removed from the whey by pressing the mixture through a filter press and the clear, colorless, liquid is concentrated by eve ration at as low a temperature as possib e to a syrup containing about lactose. This syrup is drawn into a vacuum pan where t e concentration is carried out to a int where crystals of substantially pure lactose separate. The magma of lactose crystals and mother liquor are discharged into receivin tanks, whence they are drawn into centriFugals where the mother liquor is spun off and the last traces removed y washing 'with cold water. The crystals are removed from the centrifugals and dried either in trays or in any other convenient manner and ground, bolted and packed for the market. The mother liquor obtained is treated as the originally concentrated whey. By this means a second crop of lactose crystals is obtained. The second crop of crystals is dissolved in water and introduced into the vailcuum pan with the evaporated clarified w e It has been found by experiment that lactose is relatively insensitive to heat when in slightly alkaline or neutral solution. This process is so designed as to avoid all heatin while the lactose containing material is aci in reaction.

When lime in excess of that necessary.to neutralize the free acids is added to whey and the lime precipitated with CO, at elevated temperatures, CaGO, is precipitated in granular form containing either as chemical combination or as a mechanical admix-' one step by carbonating until the material has a H value of 8.4 or is neutral to phenolphthaiiein, or there ma be an intermediate separation of the CaC that is to say, the carbonation may be carried to a point short tralize the acid content of t e who Temperatmw. 1. Carbonation between C. and 95 G. 2. Evaporation not her than 90 C.

3. Crystallization nother than C.

Reduced by carbonation to pH 8.4.

Maintain as nearly entire process.

Limits of L Limits within which carbonation can be garriel out as expressed in pH values, from to .2.

Limit of temperatures,

The range of temperat ares within which a coagulation of the albumen ofthe whey may he efi'ected, when employed in conjunction with CO, is from 50 C. to 95 0., although the best and most complete coa lation takes place at a temperature of 80.

Having thus described our invention, wha we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent isr 1 1. In the process of extracting lactose from whey thesteps which consist 1n adding an alkali in excess of that r uired to neu heating the whey to coagulate the al umen content. a 2. In the process of extracting lactose from whey, t e steps which consist in adding a suflicient quantity of milk of lime to.

completely neutralize the acid content and to provide an excess of lime, heating the whey to an approximate'temperature of 80 0., and maintaining it at this temperature until the albumen contained is coa and then passing carbon dioxide as t rough the whey until-the whey has a p value of would as possible through lated,

8.4 or is neutral to a phenolphthalein indicator.

'3. In the rocess of extracting lactose from whe t e steps which consist in add ing an al ali in excess of that required to neutralize the acid content of the who heating the whey and gradually increasing the temperature to coagulate and reci itate the albumen content, and gradually ecreasing the alkali content as the temperature inv creases. 4. In the process of extracting lactose from whey, the steps which consist in adding a suflicient quantity of milk of lime to completel neutralize the acid content and to p rovi e an excess of lime, heating the whey 6 to an approximate temperature of 80 (3.,

and maintaining the whey at this temperature until the albumen contained is coagulated, then passing carbon dioxide acid gas through the whey until the .whey has a pH value of 8.4 or is neutral to a phenolphthalein indicator, clarifying thewhey to remove the preci itated lime and albumen, concentrating t e clarified whey until crystals of lactose are formed, removing the crystals and maintainin the whey at a pH value of 8.4 during tie clarifying step and the crystallizing step so that or stals havin a slightly alkaline content w' be obtaine SHERMAN G. MEREDITH. NIELS N. T. NYBORG. 

